Media depositories are used to receive media items from a customer. One common type of media depository is a sheet media depository for receiving items of media in sheet form. For example, such items of media can be currency notes, checks, tickets, giros or the like.
Sheet media depositories are used in automated teller machines (ATMs) and other self-service terminals. Other such self-service terminals are vending machines, change machines, teller units, cash recyclers or the like. The sheet media depositories are used to identify, validate and store or return deposited sheets.
Some sheet depositories are capable of receiving a bunch of sheets in a loading area and then picking individual sheets from the bunch so that each sheet can then be identified and validated individually prior to storage of the validated sheet within a depository or returned to a customer. These depositories are sometimes referred to as bunch sheet depositories. Bunch sheet depositories may transport the bunch from a loading area to a picking area or the picking area may be adjacent to the loading area.
Bunches of items of media such as currency notes and/or checks are thus deposited by a user and, subsequent to a user agreement step and item verification step, these items are stored semi-permanently within a self-service terminal until security staff or bank staff come to empty the storage unit. The storage unit is sometimes referred to as a stacking bin. Alternatively, when an input item is identified as being an illicit or damaged item, the item is stored in a storage unit referred to as a reject bin.
In prior known stacking bins, items such as checks or currency notes are driven through a paper transport system using pairs of rollers that pinch the items and rotate to drive the items along a pre-determined pathway. At a final pair of rollers, the items are pushed into a stack of items being stored. Often, the lead edge of an item being fed into an extant stack can collide with the trailing edge of items already in the stack. This causes the items in the stack to buckle and fold up, making them difficult to retrieve afterwards. Buckled and folded items also take up more space than neatly stacked items and thus reduce overall storage capacity.
Where the stacking bins are so-called horizontal stacking bins, the issue of colliding items is an issue. However, the issue of colliding items in the bin is even more prevalent and serious in a stacking bin type called a vertical bin in which introduced items of media are inclined to drop to the bottom of the bin with the assistance of gravity. In either type, the order in which incoming items of media are received may be lost when buckled and/or folded items collide. When the order is lost, additional time is usually required later at a back office facility of a financial institution to sort through the deposited and stored items to a pre-determined order in which the items were received. Jams may also occur which can lead to service down time and may be costly to clear.